Dye-sensitized solar cells based on Au/SnS/TiO₂ sensitized by natural dye

A photoanode composed of Au/SnS/TiO₂ sensitized by natural dye is designed and fabri-cated for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A layer of spherical nano-TiO₂ is prepared by calcination and a layer of nano-SnS is deposited on the TiO₂ photoanode by the continuous ion layer adsorption reaction (SILAR). The Au nanoparticles are modified and sensitized with natural dye. The Au nanoparticles exhibit excellent localized surface plasmon reso-nance (LSPR) effects and enhanced the electron trapping ability. Owing to the smaller bandgap of SnS and optical activity in the infrared region, the electron mobility improves and electron recombination decreases. Electrochemical assessment reveals that the pho-toelectric characteristics of the DSSC based on Au/SnS/TiO₂ are greatly improved after natural dye sensitization and compared with the TiO₂ photoanode, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the DSSC improves by 105%.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).